Karlan to take Justice Department voting rights post

12/20/13 5:26 PM EST

The Obama administration is tapping a Stanford Law School professor who is favorite of many on the legal left, Pam Karlan, to take a prominent Justice Department post overseeing enforcement of voting rights laws.

Karlan will become the deputy assistant attorney general for voting rights in Justice's Civil Rights Division, a Justice Department official confirmed Friday.

The Obama administration's voting rights efforts are facing significant challenges in the coming years in the wake of the Supreme Court's decision earlier this year striking down the requirement in the Voting Rights Act that voting-related changes in parts or all of 16 states obtain prior approval from the Justice Department or a federal court.

The new legal landscape will require the department and civil rights groups to fight more battles to enforce the election laws in more places than they had done previously, if the Obama administration wants to fulfill its commitment to aggressive enforcement.

Presumably, Karlan will oversee that new campaign. The appointment, which does not require Senate confirmation, will also raise her profile in Washington.

Karlan backers have long considered her a possible Supreme Court nominee, though she has suggested to POLITICO and in public speeches that she is too outspoken to be offered such a high-profile post. It's unclear whether her new job, which could draw her a considerable amount of flak from various political figures, will make her more or less confirmable for a prominent judicial opening.